Oysy Sushi

Solid, dependable, casual, but not spectacular sushi in the River North area.  I went to Oysy with a friend last night and it was a refreshingly easy going, not stuffy, sushi joint in a neighborhood filled with stuffy and trendy sushi joints.

I started with a mango martini which was light and delicious - a nice blend of fruit and alcohol without being overly sweet or thick.

We kept our meal simple.  An order of edamame that was fresh, steaming, and lightly salted.  (You'd be surprised how many sushi places in Chicago can actually mess up edamame.  Oysy is not one of them.)  

I followed up with a Ruby roll and a standard Negi Hamachi roll.  The Ruby roll was tasty, but the pieces were cut incredibly large and there was way too much rice on the outside.  The tuna was moderately fresh.  Not the freshest I've had around town, but not bad at all.  The roll was just a little hard to eat due to the large bites and the rice dulled the flavor of everything else.  The Negi Hamachi was pretty standard and dependable.  Again, the yellowtail was fresh enough.  Not the freshest I've had, not mind blowingly fresh, but very tasty and dependable.

All in all, Oysy is a good place for a quick sushi bite when you're in River North.  It's not flashy and it's not incredibly memorable.  But it gets the job done and you will leave satisfied.

We started our meal at OYSY's with a bright, refreshing, tentacle loaded octopus salad. As a huge fan of octopus, I appreciated that it wasn't overworked. It was lightly marinated, combined with some pretty veggies and dressed in a fresh lime dressing.

Oysy is my go-to sushi place in the Streeterville and River North neighborhoods. The restaurant is clean, comfortable and serves solid food.

My initial focus for Japanese restaurants will always be the fish (duh) and I wasn't disappointed here. Quality was good, variety was there. I'm not a huge fan of rolls in general so I don't have much to say about those except that there seemed to be plenty of options for those inclined to order rolls. The steak we got was solid but the tempura was lacking in execution and didn't have the traditional fried texture, which admittedly is difficult to achieve.

Service was friendly, attentive, and relatively quick. But like almost all restaurants in the area, the food was pretty expensive. But honestly, there's not much to say. Good sushi in a nice restaurant.